My name is Kelvin Fomba and as a 44-year-old Liberian, I have something to share with the world. When I was growing up my mom told me “it is good to be good.” My mom’s advice has been guiding me throughout my life. However, the way I see the world right now I have become confused and frustrated with how people treat each other. For the last two weeks, I have been doing plenty of thinking, because many things are bothering me to where I am seeking the answers to these five questions:

1. Are good people going to remain suffering for the bad people?
2. Why do the rich use the poor to get more rich than to help the poor out of poverty?
3. Is money the only family and friends in the world now?
4. Is it a crime when someone loves people enough that they are willing to sacrifice to help others?
5. How can a person, who has a plan, experience and skills, and the effort to help their own people, implement that program without having the opportunity or support? What should they do?

These are questions that can disturb a person like me who has struggled all their life for something more. Since being a young boy the one thing I love most of all is education. However, when my father died my mom did not have the chance or the help to continue my education. When she became ill, I worked to support her until she passed away. Also, I started having responsibility of providing for my own family. So many things including war interrupted my education and have added to my struggle since I don’t have the paper that says I am educated.

My schooling may have stopped, but I have not stopped learning and this has allowed me to help my own children with their school work. As a self-learner, I was able to learn a good trade that has allowed me to support myself and my family. I have gained all the qualities of being a professional in two trades: driver and automotive mechanic. It was my dream that these trades would not only be good for me, but also for other people.

I have been trying for so many years to really succeed in my aim and objective to help my nation’s people by training them in my two trades and sharing my knowledge to make them better at what they do. Part of this objective was to start my own garage, and this has been a ten-year struggle in trying to implement, and I have yet to succeed.

I was not able to do what I wanted in my life, which was to continue my education in high school and beyond, because of poverty and lack of support. However, I want to help the young people of Liberia to know these professional trades and to advance their skills so that they can achieve success in their lives. I know my skills are a gift from God, because the vehicles and machines I learned with when I was younger are not the same today and this has allowed me to drive and fix any vehicle or machine that comes my way.

I know there are good people in poor countries like me who want to help their own people to become self-sufficient. We have love and compassion for our own people and if we had the opportunity we could truly make a difference in their lives. But, here we all struggle just to survive, and hope and pray that our current situation will change and someone will trust and recognize that we too are capable of helping our own people.